


Under the Influence

by radiocandy



Category: Tales of Symphonia
Genre: F/M, Sheelos, big dump otp idiots, established relationship type thing???, or fuck buddies idk call it what you will
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:00:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29141142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radiocandy/pseuds/radiocandy
Summary: Honestly, searching Desian bases would be significantly less aggravating without the worst— and most distracting— partner inbothof the paralell worlds.
Relationships: Sheena Fujibayashi/Zelos Wilder
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	Under the Influence

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this pretty fast so i'll probably come back and mess with it but here's my fav big dumb idiots being especially dumb together.  
>  _edit like eight hours later, aka 4:00 am est:_ i tweaked it but i'm sure i'll be back to look at it and say "wtf" and tweak it more, ANYWAY ENJOY.

It’s a no brainer that searching Desian bases completely sucks— just about any sane individual would come to that conclusion.

The factories— _ugh, no, that’s awful, don’t think like that_ — **facilities** are always gigantic, overflowing with unusual technology and tricky machines as well as nefarious traps. For bases built solely to harvest human lives to create expheres, they are heavily guarded and well mapped out internally; in fact, she’s found it very easy to get lost in the many twists and turns of numerous identical rooms and hallways.

But what _really_ sucks about searching Desian bases, she thinks, is the inevitable time spent with her search partner.

In the end, she can’t really point fingers at anyone about the irritating situation. It’s only logical, after all: they’re a party of eight, and the grandiose facilities are simply too large and complicated to explore fully with their entire group together at once. The obvious solution, they all had ultimately decided, was to split into four teams of two individuals each.

...And it’s that very solution that’s brought her to her current dilemma.

Separating Lloyd and Colette has been and always will be impossible; as far as Presea goes, she could more than likely hold her own by herself— but it’s a very real possible Genis could have an anxiety attack if he doesn't accompany her; and so far neither Raine nor Regal have shown any desire to split from their usual routine together in order to step up and give her a break from her standard plus one.

Who, as it just so happens, is currently badgering her in a petulant, whiny tone as she does what Raine insists they always do while they traverse each facility: search for any kind of valuable salvage before she blows the place sky high.

“Just how long do we have to do this?”

Sheena Fujibayashi spins around on her heel and glares at the man that she’s currently forced to call her company, her brown eyes flashing with a look of pure annoyance and her mouth curving downward into a flat frown. “As long as we’re here, you idiot Chosen. Now get back to work.”

With an indignant sniff, she then whirls back around and begins looking through a large pile of papers on a desk that appear to be some kind of complicated blueprints. Her search partner’s arrogant laughter echoes behind her as she sifts through them, somehow managing to inaudibly containing her rage until he finally falls silent once more.

Naturally, _that_ doesn't last for very long.

“Awfully bossy today, aren’t we?”

Sheena turns her head to look over her shoulder at Tethe'alla's Chosen One, Zelos Wilder, who’s all sarcasm and apathy as he tosses a random object made of metal that he had been examining aside haphazardly. It lands in a nearby bin with a loud **clang** and the young assassin winces, hoping the noise didn't alert any guards, then shoots him a poisonous look meant to kill.

 _“Are you trying to get us caught?!”_ She hisses as viciously as she can, seething.

All the redhead does is grin sloppily at her before saying, “Maybe.”

Her internal temperature is almost at its boiling point, but Sheena somehow manages to turn her back towards him once again, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath as she does so.  She may still be fuming, but she won’t give him the satisfaction of a response— it’s what Zelos is obviously fishing for _(as usual),_ and over time she likes to think that she has learned how to avoid his entire pole, line, bait, and sinker altogether.

As she resumes looking at the papers covered in odd symbols and writing, she hears him behind her beginning to work through examining another box of strange Design objects. There is sweet silence between the two of them once again for only a minute before Zelos smashes it into tiny little pieces yet again, along with her second-to-last nerve.

“You’re in a worse mood than usual lately,” the redhead drawls, not bothering to turn to face her as he says it, choosing instead to continue scrutinizing each strange object in the box he’s currently investigating.

“I am _not,”_ Sheena hisses venomously in return, all the while **knowing** right away that she shouldn’t have responded— but her quick tongue has always been one of her worst enemies, and she can tell right away from a palpable shift in Zelos' demeanor that he knows he's hit a sore spot on the first try (his absolute favorite).

“Oh?”

His tone is playful, and behind her Sheena hears the unmistakable sound of clothing lightly shuffling about; she can safely deduce that he's now turned around to face her once again. The way that she can somehow suddenly feel his gaze on her back makes it exceedingly obvious, and she just _knows_ that he’s casting her an unbearably cheeky look without even turning to check. Zelos is toying with her— something that seems to be one of his favorite pastimes— and she knows it.

So, naturally, all Sheena offers him in return to his provocation is silence, pretending that she is suddenly very interested in a schematic of some kind of overly complicated Desian weapon.

Zelos, however, being... well, _Zelos,_ isn't about to let her off the hook so easily, pushing forward.

“I bet I can guess why.”

His tone is incredibly cocky and provocative— _unbearably so_ — and Sheena, as fucking always, can't stop herself this time from impulsively taking the oh-so-delicious bait.

She jumps to her feet quickly and whirls around, her mouth twisted downward into a scowl as she plants both of her hands on her wide hips in a defiant manor, staring him right in the eye. “Can you now, _oh_ _great Chosen One?”_

All Zelos does is chuckle in response, and when he speaks, his voice oozes blatant suggestiveness.

“We’ve been camping out for almost three weeks straight, right?” he asks, almost sounding absentminded, as though this conversation is about the simplest thing in the world. The box of contraptions he had been studying has long since been abandoned, sitting forgotten on a nearby table in favor of taunting her.

Sheena’s eyes widen drastically and a blush spreads hastily across her cheeks.

“If you’re implying—”

“That we haven't fucked in weeks?"

Sheena winces visibly and groans out loud when he states their **situation** in the bluntest terms humanly possible, and before she scolds him she slaps her forehead with her palm to illustrate her frustration visibly.

_“Zelos, you’re **not** supposed to talk about that!”_

The Chosen arches a single brow at her, as if to say _“well excuuuuse me,"_ and she clenches her jaw tightly in response, gritting her teeth. The redhead then shrugs his broad shoulders and speaks up once more, his tone once again so incredibly casual that it could possibly be used to discuss something as menial as the weather.

“No one else is here, Sheena. I can talk about _fucking you_ all I want.”

The dark-haired summoner buries her face in her palms in an attempt contain her ire— or is it embarrassment— pure annoyance, maybe— or is it somehow something else? Well, whatever the hell it is, it’s making that unbearable heat now bubble upward into her chest and her insides coil together tightly. She drags her fingers down her face slowly in exasperation and when his expression slides into her view, his smirk is far too self-satisfied for her liking, his eyes glinting with roguish mischief.

“Well, _Zelos,"_ she says in a huffy tone, making sure to put extra snobby emphasis on his name while turning her back towards him for a third time to crouch down slightly and begin sifting through another box of foreign Desian objects, “I’m not like _you._ I’m perfectly capable of waiting until the next time we stay at an inn.”

Zelos hums a random, unfamiliar tune behind her for a few moments before musing:

“That’s not how it seemed when I was on guard duty last night.”

Sheena freezes solid for just a split second before she rapidly stands up straight, bristles visibly, and then whirls around to glare at him with dangerous brown eyes. Somehow maintaining her usual stubborn demeanor, she raises her brows in his direction, crossing her arms across her chest before she responds in a barely manageable cool tone.

“And just what the hell does _that_ mean?”

Zelos turns his head toward her, and the look in his blue eyes is the most smug she’s ever seen (dear Goddess Martel, he is just so damn slappable).

“Let’s just say that you’re not as quiet as you think you are, _honey_ ,” Zelos says with a dramatic wink and a shit-eating grin that is once again far too joyous for her liking, and she’s just about to launch into a tirade to let him know as much— but then he starts to wiggle his index and middle fingers in a suggestive motion, and her heart almost stops on the spot.

Sheena’s face instantly flushes a hue that she estimates may be a new level of bright red for her.

Like, _bright-fucking-Lloyd’s-outfit-color_ red.

In the span of mere seconds she feels her blood course not only to her face but beyond; her neck and upper chest suddenly feel as if they’re on fire as they rapidly flush with a color that matches her cheeks. Her eyes are wide and hyper aware like a wild animal caught in a trap, and an electric feeling of static shoots down her spine that resonates throughout her bones.

Zelos must thoroughly enjoy her reaction to his lewd accusation because he stops crudely wiggling his fingers in the air and instead opts to place his hands upon his hips and begin laughing loudly (and _annoyingly_ ). When his laughter finally dies down, he grins at her lopsidedly and then runs a hand through his fiery red hair.

There’s a large lump in Sheena’s throat that’s growing by the second and _now_ her body temperature has long since surpassed its boiling point, currently feeling like it could match that of a bubbling volcano on the cusp of an eruption. There’s no way to hide the blatant embarrassment written all over her face, no way to circumvent the conversation that's about to occur, and _definitely_ no way to lie her way out of this. So, taking a deep (and unintentionally shaky) breath, Sheena steels herself and finally finds her words:

“What did you hear?”

Zelos lets his haughty gaze land on her once more, and the look in his eyes makes her chest tighten— but it’s his entire expression that _really_ stuns her. While he may still have that stupid signature cocky aura around him, his face shows more than that— in fact, it’s downright lascivious, which, now that she considers it, really shouldn't take her by surprise. Zelos has never been one to hold back when taunting, torturing, or teasing her.

“All the _best parts_ ,” he finally drawls (so fucking) annoyingly, shifting and folding his arms behind his head casually to take a somehow condescending position before smiling in what is clearly a mockingly sweet manner at her, as if he’s recalling a fond memory.

Sheena, frankly, feels so embarrassed that she finds herself wanting to violently pinch her own arm to see if she is dreaming (or rather, having a nightmare)— but sadly, she’s far too sensical a woman to think that could ever be true. Her brain is completely overtaken by overwhelming white noise and every word she tries to utter disintegrates on her tongue as she instinctively hugs herself just a _tiny bit_ tighter with her arms across her chest.

Three undeniable truths:

  1. Zelos had been on guard duty last night while the party slept.
  2. His position hadn't been very far from her bedroll.
  3. There’s simply no use in denying what she did to alleviate her needs— or what he must have heard as a result.



After several stale moments, Sheena finally opts to go on the offensive, lowering her voice to a deadly hiss. “Zelos, if you tell anyone about this, _I swear to Martel—”_

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Time out, honey. If anyone is telling on you, it’s yourself with those wicked little fingers of yours,” The laugh Zelos lets out is irritatingly cocky before he continues with, “besides, it’s not like I have any reason to share with the class given that _I’m_ the one who already helps you solve your… _‘problems’_.”

“And I already said that my _‘problems’_ can wait until the next time we stay at an inn, asshole.”

“You sure about that?”

Sheena shoots her tried and true death glare at him, her expression now screaming exasperation and her voice flat as a pancake.

“Yes, Zelos. I am completely, entirely, one hundred percent sure.”

“I mean,” he shrugs his broad shoulders sluggishly in response while still maintaining his arms’ folded position behind his head, “I could always just solve them _now._ ”

Sheena does a double take before shooting him a completely incredulous look, her brain momentarily thrown for one hell of a loop.

“Zelos, we are searching an enemy Desian base— _what the hell are you thinking?!”_

“What I’m thinking,” Zelos says, finally unfolding his arms from behind his head and bringing them down to hook his thumbs in his pants pockets while casually pushing off the wall that he had been leaning against before continuing, “is that we’ve been camping outdoors on the godforsaken ground for almost three damn weeks with no privacy, and now we’ve suddenly got at least an hour where no one will find us… or have any idea what we’re doing.”

The lump in Sheena’s throat has somehow doubled— no, tripled— in size now as she turns her back towards him once again. The knot aches slightly when she just barely glances over her shoulder at him a second time as he shoots her his stupid trademark _‘Zelos Wilder’_ completely punchable grin. Her heart is practically beating out of her chest, but she manages to regain control of herself yet again and does her best to counter him.

“You don’t know that for sure,” is all she manages to choke out, and the defiant tone she had tried to conjure ends up sounding weak as hell.

“Sheena,” Zelos responds, enunciating her name sluggishly on purpose, drawing it out agonizingly slowly in a way that he knows that she loves to hate, “we’re in a pointlessly huge and confusing enemy hideout with _zero_ feng-shui. What are the odds of our team running into any of the other three?”

“Come on, Zelos, you _know_ it could hap—”

The Chosen rolls his eyes dramatically and waves his hand in the air nonchalantly as he cuts her off abruptly. “How many of these stupid bases have we teamed up to search— just for Raine to blow them to smithereens in the end, of course— as a pair together?”

Sheena exhales somewhat nervously as she tries to navigate this dangerous terrain as expertly as possible. “…A lot.”

“And during all those pointless expeditions have we ever, ever run into another one of our party’s teams before meeting back up while regrouping at the end?” Zelos is back to roguishly grinning at her now and _boy oh boy_ , she can see where this is headed.

After a few tense moments that feel like an eternity, she is forced to spit out a petulant “No,” in acknowledgment.

“And do we _ever_ actually find anything when we’re scrounging for salvage in these creepy ass human processing factories?”

Sheena winces visibly at his crude wording regarding the nature of base and then glares at him angrily before she’s once again obligated to admit in an irritated tone:

“No, we never find anything in all this weird Design crap that Raine insists we search through.”

Zelos lets out a sigh, long and woeful and _fake as hell_ , before shrugging his shoulders yet again and feigning bemusement. “It just seems to me like it could be time better spent.”

The young assassin is once again completely frozen in place, every muscle in her body rigid— her knees feel wobbly, but they thankfully have not failed her (yet). After a beat, Sheena realizes that she must still be wearing a very powerful scowl on her face because there’s a brief pause, and then the redhead speaks up again to break the quiet between them, his voice somehow more jovial than before.

“Honey, can you maybe show mercy punch me below the neck this time? I’m pretty sure you’re going to permanently deform my beautiful face soon, and I just simply _can’t_ have that happen.”

Sheena’s brown eyes snap right back up to him immediately.

Zelos’ expression has gone from smug to a sort of joking and his smile has gone from cocky to (somewhat) genuine. He’s staring at her with a sheepish look, like a kid caught with his hand inside of a cookie jar, all the while his gaze aimed straight at her face and not down at her chest— which is honestly pretty impressive for him.

But she _hates_ when this happens.

Because Goddess Martel, every single time they’re alone together and he somehow makes this weird transformation from his normal, closed off, asshole self into this trusting, perverted, silly idiot whom she knows all too well because she’s really the only person who ever sees him like this (and she knows it's intentionally that way, which makes her feel strange in her own skin and fuck no, that's subject for another time, as in _never—_ )

Silence once again permeates the room they're occupying, but this time the atmosphere is positively charged with the weight of the unspoken desires belonging to both individuals that are easily discernible in the air. At last, Sheena sighs internally.

“…You are _such_ an asshole,” She finally manages to cobble together a few words— as pathetic as they may be— to break the latest quiet stretch lingering between them, her face still a furious shade of red.

Zelos’ smile just grows wider in response and he leans back slightly on his palms against some kind of large, foreign electrical Design machine behind him (which must be deactivated, thankfully). He then directs his playful gaze towards her and cocks a brow suggestively in her direction before teasingly asking in his most annoying manner,

“So what’s it gonna be, princess?”

Sheena’s jaw clenches tightly yet again (she _hates_ being called pet names and he _knows_ it, dammit) and she shoots her patented death glare at him one more time for a solid few seconds— before she finally uncrosses her arms and shyly crumples slightly inward, staring down at her boots in what could be described as a timid manner coming from her. When she speaks out again, her face is still its lasting bright red hue, but her anger has clearly dulled and replaced with the kind of quiet, stubborn fondness that he’s grown accustomed to.

“Don’t treat me like a little kid,” she finally mumbles, seemingly pacified for the moment, her voice soft but still full of her standard amount of obstinance.

The way Zelos laughs heartily (and somewhat proudly) as he pushes off the strange machine behind him and crosses the room towards her is so annoyingly charming that she could vomit. Sheena feels a sort of molten heat begin to drip, drip, drip down her spine, and she shudders the tiniest bit as it rapidly begins to pool in her stomach.

 _Why why why_ is he like this? And _why why why_ is she always drawn to him?

It’s **infuriating** and **not fucking fair.**

Well, whatever the damn reason, her stomach is currently doing violent somersaults courtesy of the Chosen One advancing on her. Sheena does her best to suppress the sensation while attempting to keep her breathing balanced and calm to give the illusion that she's in control of herself. Time feels as if it has slowed down drastically, and each second seems to drag on longer and longer as they pass by.

When Zelos finally closes the distance between them and both his face and body are mere inches away from hers, Sheena inhales shakily, still determined to keep the pattern of her breathing at normal pace— but then suddenly time resumes at its regular speed and she tumbles back into reality, where Zelos' blue eyes are staring right into her brown ones, painted entirely with that emotion she refuses to acknowledge (or even think about), and she’s in such close vicinity to him that she can feel heat radiating off his body.

Zelos slowly leans in, gently nudging his way under her chin with his nose and then moving in so that his mouth is next to her ear. Sheena's entire body shudders involuntarily and she bites her bottom lip lightly when a wave of his warm breath washes over her skin; he chuckles wickedly in her ear as a response and upon drinking in that sound alone her head begins spinning in circles, every word she’s trying to choke out dying in her throat. He presses his lips up against the side of her jaw and the skin underneath them burns in the best way possible.

His mouth slowly makes its way onward, dipping down to suck lightly on the skin just under her jawline and then nipping at her just slightly with a light scrape of his teeth. Eventually Zelos’ lips finally reach hers, but instead of cementing what she knows will be the first of many hungry and desperate kisses within the next hour or so, she feels his mouth curve upward into a smile (or maybe a smirk, who knows with this _idiot,_ honestly) against her own as his hands slide excruciatingly slowly down her body and over her curves to easily find and settle on easily her hips.

Sheena shivers when his hands find their perch and she lets out a small, breathy noise at the contact, his touch electrifying her skin wherever his hands move and leaving lasting tingling sensations behind. It’s then that she finally just gives the fuck up, her knees dangerously weak beneath her as she slowly and unsteadily reaches up to splay her hands across his broad chest.

The young summoner somehow manages to blush an even more extreme hue as she lightly circles the edges of his embedded cruxis crystal with her thumb. Eventually she murmurs what she knows will be her last words before the coming spark and the incendiary combustion that will follow:

“You’re a _horrible influence_."

Sheena mumbles the words quietly against his mouth in a childishly whiny tone of voice while her lips lightly graze across his, but after a beat her fingers begin to unashamedly explore his sculpted torso, her nails lightly grazing against his skin until she eventually fiercely grabs onto the front of his tunic on either side with each of her hands.

The redhead just laughs again, deep and masculine and _hot as fucking hell,_ and Sheena feels all of the muscles in her body grow taught with anticipation as a result. She can tell that Zelos notices her body's reaction right away as he seizes the opportunity to nudge one of his legs between her now trembling thighs to spread them apart. As he then settles his hips between her legs like he somehow belongs there, Sheena is forced to bite back a soft whine when she feels what is unmistakably his own arousal pressed against her.

Zelos chuckles softly and then utters into her ear what he also knows will be his last words before the coming conflagration, all the while reaching quickly behind her back with one hand to grab onto and harshly tug on the tied pink fabric that binds her clothing together.

_“The absolute worst.”_


End file.
